Submitted By: Joebert D, Duran Submitted to: Arch.

Jan Michael Gillera

2015-10439 Subj: Housing

Asian Urbanisms and the Privatization of Cities

(Reaction Paper)

'Gated community' as a group of houses, surrounded by fences or walls, from

which the adjacent streets are closed off by gates, which may be either electronic or guarded. In

between the houses, there is an inner network of streets as well as dead-end streets, the latter

order to prevent through-traffic. Residents have access to various services (such as security

guards, maintenance, a school, playground, leisure facilities, etc), which facilitate their complete

isolation from the surrounding environment. People living here often go to work by car, hence

their lives are basically confined to two locations: the workplace and the residential park

(disregarding the car in between.

Contemporary town planners find consensus around the idea that “good

communities should feature a mix of uses and people, open and connected streets, pedestrian

networks and compact form” (Source: Magda Metwally, Sahar Soliman Abdalla). In accordance

with this concept the European cities have been developed. In these kinds of cities housing,

utilities, land usage, transportation, sanitation and social aspects are closely interlinked to attain

what we call a livable city.

Gated communities are against the city’s basic principle of living together; they

fragment a city by breaking the connection between groups of people, their activities and social

relations. Further to this, they separate streets and public spaces physically from each other and

they divide in smaller parts the compact form of the city.

 In Manila gated communities exist because they represent an alternative lifestyle

that avoids the problems existing in the open communities and unsolved by the public

administration. Firstly, open communities are crowded and disordered; the streets generate

activities and the pathways are occupied by legal or illegal sari-sari shops. Along with this, the

streets are packed with parked cars and other forms of transportation and traffic. The high level

of people and pollution annoys the inhabitants. (see figure 1). Secondly protection against

sound and sight from the outside is missing in the open communities, and privacy within the

homes is missing as well. Thirdly open communities present a lack of adequate spaces for

recreation and social gathering; the main city park and few local public sport facilities are the

only places where residents can freely gather for socialization and relaxation.

Gated communities are sold by private investors as a master-planned

neighborhood which are secure and boast a healthy atmosphere and adequate facilities. Gated

communities protect the inhabitants from crime but also from external noise. They develop a

community as a whole evoking a group image, control the traffic and perform community

functions.

Around 1.3 million people of Metro Manila live within gated communities which

occupy approximately 16% of Metro Manila’s urban space. This is equivalent to an area of 101

square kilometers. The population density in this area is 12,883 people per square kilometer;

considerably lower than in the rest of Metro Manila. (Source: Tanate Kenneth Verzosa, 2005)

Despite the positive effect on the single user, gated communities create disastrous

effects in the shape and in the functioning of the city’s system. Quezon City, for example, was

mentioned in the report of MMUTIS (Metro Manila Urban Transportation Integration Study,

1999) to have severe problems on accessibility due to the existence of gated communities.
 The difference between the pattern of houses inside and outside the gated

community and how the walls cut every connection in between. No one except the inhabitants of

the closed neighborhood can enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and the order created inside the

walls. This practice of exclusivity causes social injustice because it connotes the segregation of

society. In some ways, the restrictions in the form of gates and fences around neighborhoods

represent more than simple physical barriers, they manifest tension between outsiders and

insiders, and the major problems of the city are left to the outsiders. This form of community

development, as an enclosed neighborhood, has various issues contradicting the UNDP’s

propositions (United Nations Development Programm) for better Asian Cities. It does not help to

reach the goal of poverty reduction and is against a democratic governance and sustainable

development. Therefore, it is necessary that people abolish the selfish system that is the gated

community and start to think of the city as a whole instead of focusing only on their private piece

of land. A city should be a common ground where life is able to develop without borders.